ABSTRACT

This chapter presents some reflections towards a hypothetical model of technological change in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The GDR appears to have had an especially pronounced lag behind the Federal Republic of Germany in the more modern branches of technology such as electronics, data processing, instrument building, synthetic fibres and plastics. Too small a GDR research and development effort, at least up to the mid-sixties, in the “modern” branches of industry such as plastics, data processing, and electrical machine and apparatus construction was one major reason for their lower technological sophistication relative to West Germany. Research and development in the GDR shared some of the deficiencies of the Soviet system but also some of the advantages of the Western system. Economic stimuli during the sixties were probably stronger in the GDR than the Soviet Union. D. Granick states that GDR top managers seemed to be affected by career incentives more than in any other East European country.